EUROPE'S NEWEST KINGDOM
Photograph by Melville Chater
KORcA'S HORSE MARKET IS THE LARGEST IN ALBANIA
A lively scene of stamping beasts saddled with wooden slats, and of gesticulating men who
use every trick or test known to a' conty-fair horse deal, is presented in this market. Men
ride down from the mountains with a load, sell the load and sometimes the horse, and then
tramp home. In the Middle Ages many European armies used horses of Albanian breed, and
the country's famed light cavalry won numerous battles for the Nation's hero, Scanderbeg.
purchaser a certificate which attests to his
bona fide "buy."
In due course a recommended chauffeur
with a light-type car drew up at our door.
Korea's minarets dropped behind, its wide
plain was crossed, and now we found our
selves threading a narrow, cliff-browed
gully.
"Bad bandit place !" chirped our
American-Albanian chauffeur.
"Know
whattamean, bandits ?"
We said we knew. An hour later we
entered a second, sinister-looking defile.
"Bad holdup place!" caroled our chauf
feur. "Know whattamean, holdup ?" And,
with forced jauntiness, we admitted our
familiarity with the word.
That cheery youth continued to indicate
the site of bygone ambushes, or where
Government troops had cleaned up ma
rauding bands. It was at Erseka, where
we halted to watch nomad Vlachs donkey
ing hillward at the close of market day,
that I asked him his name. Turning a
beady eye upon us, the youth announced
without ostentation:
"I'm Nick Carter."
Could it be? Were we traveling under
such distinguished protection? But how
came hair-trigger Nick, of our boyish
days, to be of Albanian origin? Explana
tions followed.
Some ten years back our chauffeur had
been dumped into a New York public
school. When his teacher learned that his
name was Querraxhia Nexhdet, she urged
upon his immigrant parents that, in the
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